Persuasions lead singer Jerome Lawson is the plaintiff in the new suit against Apple—but this isn't a copyright case. Rather, Lawson has said that the use of his voice in the ad violates his right of publicity under California state law.

Further Reading

Lawson claims his voice "was recognized by fans of his who saw the commercial, and those fans were deceived into falsely believing that Lawson endorsed Apple and the IPhone and/or that Lawson consented to the use of his voice to advertise Apple's products," according to the complaint.

The Persuasions are sampled heavily at the beginning and end of the Jamie xx song, which also features rappers Young Thug and Popcaan. The snippet of the track used in the Apple ad also features Lawson's voice prominently.

iPhone ad.

The fact that there's no copyright claim suggests that Lawson doesn't own the rights to the song any longer, THR notes. In any case, the sampling on the Jamie xx song was cleared with Universal Music, and the band members of The Persuasions were contacted prior to the release of the Jamie xx track. (However, one band member forgot that he'd been contacted, leading Billboard to publish a story in 2015 that briefly suggested the sampling was unauthorized.)

Further Reading

There are two potentially novel legal issues in the case. The first big question is whether the Lawson case isn't preempted by federal copyright law. THR points to a very similar 2006 case in which an artist couldn't bring a right of publicity case over her voice when it was part of a larger copyrighted work.

Because The Persuasions song "Good Times" was recorded in 1971, however, the sound recording might not be within the scope of federal copyright at all. Federal copyright didn't apply to sound recordings until 1972, although some states, including California, have copyright laws that apply pre-1972. The pre-1972 copyright issue is currently being litigated in California in a case involving Pandora and the 1960s rock band The Turtles.